Author Archive
Police Do Not Have a Speeding Ticket Quota
A friend of mine is a cop and I’ve been lucky enough to go on a few ride-along trips with him. It’s pretty interesting to get a firsthand look at the job of a police officer. It gives you a lot of respect for the tough job they do.
When they’re not responding to calls, they’re doing paperwork and enforcing speed limits. On one particular ride-along, we spent a couple of hours trying to catch speeders. This was of great interest to me since I am a chronic speeder.
The first thing I wanted to know, what is the deal with quotas?
He said they don’t have a quota. Although, he added that if he didn’t write any tickets then it wouldn’t look like he was doing his job. Also, there are some cops who are trying to get promoted and write a lot of tickets, so if the other cops don’t write a fair amount of tickets then they come across as slackers. So, while there isn’t an official quota, these are the reasons why cops are driven to write tickets.
There are many tools that cops use to catch speeders. There are two speed measuring technologies, doppler radar and laser (aka Lidar, Ladar and “Laser Radar”). Doppler radar technology is the same technology that is used by meteorologists to analyze clouds and predict weather patterns. It’s also used at many stores to control automatic doors. Doppler radar units for law enforcement, come in many varieties: hand-held, vehicle mounted and automated photo-radar. (more…)
Defenestrate Means: To Throw Out of a Window
Whenever someone tells me a computer frustration story, it usually ends with the phrase, “I almost threw it out the window.”
If you prefer more concise dialogue, then you’re probably reading the wrong website, but I can share a helpful word with you: defenestrate. It means, “to throw out of a window.” Used in a sentence, “I nearly defenestrated my computer.”
Today, this word is typically used for humor, but it has a very serious past. It comes from Latin, de means from and fenestra means window or opening. The word was coined around 1618, upon what is now known as the Second Defenestration of Prague. (more…)
Celebrities Pay for Their Star on the Walk of Fame
On Hollywood Boulevard and a few other streets in Hollywood, there are thousands of five-pointed stars laid into the sidewalk. Each star represents a person or fictional character who has made significant impact on film, television, music, broadcasting or theater.
The Walk of Fame is managed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. They receive about 200 nominations per year and meet every June to decide who is worthy of a star. They award a star to an average of 20 celebrities per year.
Celebrities can be nominated for a star by anyone, as long as the nomination includes a letter from the celebrity or their management, indicating they support the nomination. For example, if you think Conan O’Brien deserves a star then you need to get a letter from him or his agent and provide that letter with the letter of nomination.
To be selected for this award is a huge honor. You really need to make a significant contribution to the entertainment world to get a Hollywood star.
If you’re given a star, it really is yours. In fact, you have to pay a one-time fee that covers the cost of the star to be manufactured and maintained forever. When the Walk of Fame began in 1960, the stars were free. However, the cost of repair and maintenance of so many monuments, made that infeasible. In 1980, they started charging a one time fee of $2500. Today, there are 2407 stars to maintain. It’s no surprise that the fee for new stars is higher than ever at $25,000.
Celebrities are required to show up for the unveiling of their star, they have 5 years after the announcement to schedule a date for unveiling. Among the awards, there is usually 1 posthumous award per year. To qualify for a posthumous award, the nominee must be deceased for at least 5 years and they are not required to show up for their unveiling.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
Sources: Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Wikipedia
Photo: cobalt123 (cc)
One US Highway Uses Kilometers Instead of Miles
Mile markers line our highways. Like many other things, they were invented in ancient Greece. Originally, they were called “milestones” because they were stone posts engraved with the number of miles to and from the next town. They were made from granite, marble and other materials; they can look a lot like modern day tombstones and originals still exist in many places.
If you’re not familiar with mile markers, they are small signs next to the highway that indicate the distance from the beginning of the highway. If you’ve ever seen small signs that only contain a number, it’s likely a mile-marker.
In the United States, most even-numbered interstates have mile markers that start at zero on the west coast and increase as the highway runs east. Along odd-numbered interstates, which run north/south, the mile-markers start at zero in the south and increase as the highway goes north. In most States, exit numbers are determined by the nearest mile marker number.
In Canada, the system is similar, although kilometers are used for the mile markers and exit numbers. In India, the markers also indicate the total distance between the two cities where the marker is located. Systems similar to these exist in most other countries.
There are some inconsistencies in the United States where exits are numbered sequentially rather than by mile markers. States that number in this way are Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
There is also one interstate where the mile markers are actually labeled in kilometers. Interstate 19 in Arizona, between Tucson and the Mexican border, uses kilometers for mile markers and destination signs. Speeds are still posted in miles-per-hour.
The metric signs were installed in the 1980s when it looked like the United States was converting to the metric system. Complete conversion to metric never happened, but most of the signs along this interstate still stand. Going forward, metric signs will be replaced with US standard unit signs (“miles”) as construction projects along the highway are complete. As of 2009, one such project has been completed.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
Sources: Interstate System, Trans-Canada, Route Markers, Milestone, I19
Photo: amandabhslater (cc)
Watering Hard to Reach Plants
I did an interview with the BBC a few weeks ago and I was on the show with Caroline Bloor, head of consumer testing at Good Housekeeping. I shared a few secrets with the audience and she shared a few secrets too, including how to water hard to reach plants.
If you’ve got hanging plants or otherwise hard-to-reach botanicals, you’ve probably overshot the pot with the watering can.
Instead, trying putting ice cubes in the pot. They’ll melt slowly and water the plant. They’re much easier to water with and if you drop one, it’s much easier to clean up than its thawed relative.
Thanks for sharing this secret, Caroline.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
Photo: ell brown (cc)
Rotten Eggs Float
Whether you throw away the carton and use the egg holder in your fridge or you just don’t believe the expiry date, there will come a time when you question the edibility of eggs.
There is an easy way to test them.
Fill a container with water and gently place the egg inside it. If it sinks, it’s good to eat. If it floats, throw it out. If it weighs the same as a duck, it’s a witch.
Why?
Eggs naturally have a small air pocket in them. In fact, a bright light is used during a process called candling to determine the size of this air cell. The size of the air cell is used to determine the grade of an egg. Grade AA eggs have the smallest air cell, and as the air cell gets large the egg is given a lower grade (A, B…etc).
This air cell increases as the egg ages. There are two schools of thought about why. Some say the eggshell is porous and allows some liquid to escape and air to enter. Others say a chemical reaction takes place inside, which results in the larger air chamber and the awful smell when they are rotten. I couldn’t find a definitive answer to why the air cell increases in size, but nobody disputed the fact that it does.
Because the air cell increases, it makes the egg less dense, meaning it will float in water with enough time.
The smell of rotten eggs is a popular description for the smell of sulfur. There’s good reason for that, eggs contain a fair amount of sulfur because it is necessary for feather formation. This smell becomes more prevalent as eggs age.
Thanks to my wife Kristen for this secret.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
Source: Eggs WP, Sulfur WP, What’s Cooking America, O Chef
Some Palm Trees Can Survive Freezing Winters
Palm trees usually symbolize warm and tropical climates. From Hollywood, we know the streets of Los Angeles and Miami are lined with beautiful palm trees. Hollywood portrays New York and Chicago as cold and windy, which they are for part of the year. But, there are real palm trees in both New York and Chicago.
New York has had palm trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden since the 1980s. Chicago has palms at the beach on Lake Michigan.
Although we closely associate palms trees with warm climates, there are a some palm species that can survive freezing winters.
Any variety of palm that can survive colder geographies that are not usually considered palm regions, are called “hardy palms.” Many of them are native to higher elevations in Asia and survive freezing weather with little or no damage. (more…)
Punctuation is Not Allowed in Mailing Addresses
Whether it’s a personal or business letter, every piece of mail I receive has the address formatted differently. Some even have the return and destination addresses formatted differently.
Since the post office has very strict requirements for addressing a letter, they should all be exactly the same. The post office guidelines are recommended for fastest delivery and I’ve compiled a list of rules that are the most surprising or commonly abused.
Since most of my readers are in North America, I’ve compared the requirements from the US Postal Service and Canada Post — they’re very similar and they contain good practices that are applicable to sending mail in most places.
Mail is typically sorted by a machine, but if the machine can’t determine the address then it will be dropped in a bin for a human to sort it. Most of the requirements are design to make it easy for the machine to understand where you’re trying to send your letter.
No Punctuation Allowed
One rule that will surprise most people: no punctuation is allowed. I know your third grade teacher said you should put a comma between the city and the state, and maybe she was right at the time, but that’s not right anymore. Don’t use periods either, using punctuation will only slow the mail down. It’s going to be a tough habit to break, I know. There is one exception, and that is when the name of the City, Street or Town contains punctuation, such as an apostrophe (for example: St John’s). (more…)
iPhone and iPod Tricks
Apple has sold 50 million iPhones and 35 million iPod touch devices, so there are a lot of people who can benefit from these secrets.
This is by no means a complete list, but I wanted to provide some of the most useful and least well known iPhone tricks. Most of this list also applies to the iPod touch; if you know someone with one of these, be sure to send them a link to this article.
Double Click the Home Button
The button on the front of the phone is called the “home” button. You can choose what happens when you double click it. Mine is set to go to my phone favorites, making it quicker to dial my people. You can get to this screen by going to Settings > General > Home.
As you can see on the option screen above, there is an option for “iPod Controls.” When those are on and the phone is in standby mode (blank screen), you can double click the home button to see the current song/artist/album cover and show audio controls (volume/forward/back/play/pause) — see below for example. If you want to fast forward or rewind, hold the forward/back buttons respectively.
Every UPC Barcode Has 30 Bars
Virtually every product has a barcode on it. In North America, 12 digit UPCs are used. In Europe and parts of Asia, 13 digit EANs are the norm. Both systems are a unique set of numbers that represent that specific product. The numbers are printed for humans to read and represented as a barcode for computers to read.
The UPC (Universal Product Code) and EAN (European Article Number) are very similar; in fact, the EAN standard is heavily based on the 12 digit UPC standard.
The first UPC was scanned at a checkout in Troy, Ohio in 1974; it was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. The UPC format is very well designed and hasn’t really changed since then.
All UPCs have 30 bars. Grab any product with a 12 digit UPC and count them. Some bars are thick and some thin, but there are 30 total. Thick bars are technically made up of a varying number of thin bars as you can see in the illustration below, but thick bars are only counted as a single bar for the purpose of this description.
Each of the 12 numbers accounts for 2 bars, which gives you 24 bars. Then there are 6 guard bars that give the scanner consistent reference points. There are 2 guard bars on each end and 2 in the middle for a total of 30 bars.
Each digit is represented by 2 black bars and white space of varying thickness. The guard bars in the middle divide the 12 digits into groups of 6. The same digit on the left and right sides will be represented differently by the bars, this allows the scanner to correctly identify upside down barcodes.
The first 8 digits refer to the company that registered the UPC. The next three digits uniquely identify the product.
The last digit in the sequence has nothing to do with the product itself, it’s called a check digit. It helps the computer identify a scanning error.
The check digit is a bit complicated, but here’s how it works. Add up the digits in the odd numbered positions (first, third, etc) and multiply by three. Next, add the digits in even positions to the first number, then find the remainder when divided by 10. If the remainder is not 0, then subtract the result from ten. That number should equal the last digit, if it doesn’t then the computer knows there was a scanning error and you get to scan your self-checkout item a fourth time.
There are some rumors that the first few digits can be used to identify the country of origin, but that’s not true. With 12 digit UPCs, no digits are used to identify a country. 13 digit EANs reserve the first three digits for country of registrar. This country code simply refers to the country where the code was registered and is in no way related to where the product is made.
UPCs are registered with a non-profit organization called GS1. There is also a website for looking up UPCs, called the UPC database. It can be searched by UPC or by product description.
Broken Secrets | Written By: Chad Upton
Sources: UPCs, EANs, About.com
Images: Wikipedia (gnu)
Broken Secrets 